Benvenuto! You have happened upon the blog of a wandering Catholic American college student studying for a year in Rome, the Eternal City. You will find here my pontifications, ruminations, reflections, images, and ponderings on my life in Rome. Ciao!

Tuesday, December 6

Here is Fr. Carola proclaiming the Gospel at Mass. We we able to join with the Benedictine monks for Sunday Mass, in the Basilica - beautiful liturgy, complete with chanting, bells, and that distinctive Benedictian incense. The Benedictine story of Norcia is quite interesting in itself, as the church and monastery was taken over by Napoleon, and the spot of Benedict's birth was without Benedictines. Then, not so long ago, a group of American (yes, American) Benedictines got permission from the Italian government to re-establish a Benedictine presence here in Norcia.